The Murders at Corpsewood Manor: Charles Scudder and Joey Odom
In the late 1970s, Dr. Charles Lee Scudder and Joseph “Joey” Odom left Chicago for 40 wooded acres in northwest Georgia. Charles had worked as a pharmacology professor at Loyola University Chicago. Joey had spent years as Charles’s companion, cook, and partner in the life they were building together. They wanted privacy, land, and the chance to create a home on their own terms.
Building Corpsewood Manor
Charles and Joey built their new home by hand on Taylor’s Ridge in Chattooga County, near Trion, Georgia. The brick house had no electricity, telephone, or television. They relied on a hand pump, kerosene lamps, a wood stove, gardens, chickens, and beehives. Charles made stained glass, played a golden harp, and filled the property with art and antiques. Joey cooked, helped build the home, and created some of its stained glass details.
They called the estate Corpsewood Manor. Its occult imagery, Charles’s interest in the Church of Satan, and the unusual look of the property led to local rumors. Yet friends and visitors remembered Charles and Joey as generous hosts who shared meals, wine, and music with people who came up the mountain.
A Robbery Turned Deadly
In December 1982, 17 year old Kenneth Avery Brock brought Samuel “Tony” West and two teenage witnesses to Corpsewood Manor. Avery had been welcomed onto the property before and believed Charles and Joey had a hidden fortune inside the house.
On December 12, the visit turned into a robbery. Avery and Tony restrained Charles and demanded money. Avery went into the main house and shot Joey. Charles was then brought into the house and killed. The two men searched the home, stole what they could carry, and fled in Charles’s black Jeep. The teenage witnesses were threatened into silence.
The Case Beyond the Manor
Avery and Tony drove through Mississippi, where they encountered Navy Lieutenant Kirby Phelps at a rest area. Tony later killed Kirby while the men stole his car. The stolen Jeep and the surviving witnesses helped investigators identify the people responsible for the crimes.
Avery pleaded guilty in Georgia and received three consecutive life sentences. Tony was initially convicted and sentenced to death, but his conviction was overturned because of problems with the grand jury selection process. He later pleaded guilty in Georgia and received consecutive life sentences.
Corpsewood Manor eventually burned and fell into ruins. The folklore surrounding the property has endured, but the story begins with Charles and Joey, two people who built a remarkable home and were murdered there by people they trusted.
Sources:
Charles L. Scudder — “A Castle in the Country,” Mother Earth News (1981)https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/castle-in-the-country-zmaz81mazraw/
Pam Purcell — “Pair Enjoy Roughing It in County’s Backwoods,” The Summerville News (February 22, 1979)https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn89053933/1979-02-22/ed-1/seq-21/ocr/
West v. State — Georgia Supreme Court (1984)https://law.justia.com/cases/georgia/supreme-court/1984/40134-1.html
West v. State — Mississippi Supreme Court (1985)https://law.justia.com/cases/mississippi/supreme-court/1985/55443-0.html
West v. State — Mississippi Supreme Court (1988)https://law.justia.com/cases/mississippi/supreme-court/1988/519-so-2d-418-0.html
Peggy Nadramia — “The Tragic Case of Dr. Charles Lee Scudder, Satanist,” Church of Satanhttps://www.churchofsatan.com/tragic-case-dr-charles-lee-scudder/
B.T. Harman — “The Corpsewood Murders: 40 Years Later,” Atlanta Magazinehttps://www.atlantamagazine.com/great-reads/the-corpsewood-murders-40-years-later/
Luke Gregson — “The Corpsewood Manor Murders,” Oxford Americanhttps://oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/the-corpsewood-manor-murders
Christopher Feldt — “Death Comes to Corpsewood Manor,” North Georgia Historyhttps://www.northgeorgiahistory.com/post/death-comes-to-corpsewood-manor
Leland Kent — “Corpsewood Manor,” Abandoned Southeasthttps://abandonedsoutheast.com/2019/01/28/corpsewood-manor/
David Bulit — “Corpsewood Manor,” Abandoned Georgiahttps://abandonedgeorgia.com/corpsewood-manor/
Kelly Kazek — “The Murders of ‘Devil Worshippers’ at Corpsewood Manor”https://kellykazek.com/2019/02/25/the-murders-of-devil-worshippers-at-corpsewood-manor/
